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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Fewer homeless people

Fewer homeless people

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published Published on Dec 11, 2013   modified Modified on Dec 11, 2013
-The Business Standard


But urban homelessness has increased

As part of the 2011 census operations the government took a count of homeless people across the country on the night of February 28, 2011. The numbers of India's homeless population emerging from that survey were made public a few days ago. Although a single-day exercise has many advantages, some people have also contested it - at least one non-governmental organisation working in the field claimed Delhi has at least three times the number of homeless than the official figure, which is under 50,000. But, tested against known economic trends, the census figures make sense. They indicate that there has been a fall in both the number and proportion of homeless people across the country during the 2001-11 decade - but, interestingly this has been achieved by a sharp fall in the number of homeless people in rural areas, partly neutralised by a rise of around one-fifth in the number in urban areas.

This is consistent with official figures of a sharp fall in both urban and rural poverty during the period, along with a rapid rise in the urban population resulting from both its own growth and from migration to cities. Clearly people without jobs in the countryside are coming to towns in the hope of finding work and staying in places like roadsides, railway platforms and under flyovers (a room in even the worst slum does not come free). The share of homeless people engaged as agricultural labour has declined - but a higher percentage of people in the country is engaged in agricultural labour. The workforce participation rate among the homeless is higher than in the national average. However, while it has gone up nationally for the general population, it has gone down marginally for the homeless.

The break-down of these figures in terms of states and cities also looks realistic. Large states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra lead in the number of homeless though Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal are not far behind. This ties up with known poverty levels of states; Tamil Nadu and Kerala, despite being large states, account for some of the lowest levels of homelessness and Rajasthan has the highest proportion of the homeless in its population. Among cities, Kanpur leading the league table of the homeless is consistent with UP's leading status, as also the fact that large cities like Kolkata, Mumbai and Surat come next. At the individual level, literacy levels among the homeless are expectedly much higher, in keeping with the country as a whole. Contrary to the general trend of improvement, the number of homeless families has gone up marginally, though their share in total families has gone down sharply. This may be explained by growth in nuclear families. Overall, it seems that the trend in homelessness is thus in keeping with general trends in the economy - its decline is welcome. Still, at nearly two per thousand, it is still far too high.


The Business Standard, 9 December, 2013, http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/fewer-homeless-people-113120901067_1.html


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